Holidays!

Holidays are the perfect occasion to give and receive teddy bear gifts. It is a wonderful time for collectors, with family and friends feeding their collecting frenzy.

These holidays, make your own wish list of bears! And don't forget to buy a special Santa Bear to remember the Christmas by.

Also, make sure teddy bears are included in the holiday decorating! A bunch of bears under a Christmas tree would look simply adorable. Santa and other red and white bears scattered around tastefully in the rooms would also give a christmas-y feel to the home.

It is also a time to take a deep look at your collection, and decide upon the objectives for the year ahead. It is a great time to take an inventory of your bears, and may be even decide which bears are ready to be given away to others who might enjoy them more - especially if storage is becoming a problem for you.

Make some new year bear resolutions, and figure out the direction you want your collection to grow in, in the upcoming year. It would be good to do this fairly early, so your wishlist can contain the bears you really need.

Last but not the least - take the time to really enjoy the collection, by playing with them and taking many photos of them posing in various settings!

Themed bear displays

I decided to have seasons themes for my teddy bear collection displays. I will be having themed displays for each season, with bears wearing the right colors and costumes. I can also set the theme by staging certain elements of the season in my bear display shelf - miniature snowmen, hanging snowflakes, santa's deers and valentine hearts for winter; florals for spring and so on. Here is how I plan to arrange the bears each season:

Winter:

Winter says christmas, snow and also valentine's day for me. So my winter display will have my polar bears, cream bears, grey bears and also bears of other colors in winter clothing (think Boomer bear from Russ). Not to forget Santa Bears! The left portion of my display will contain the christmas theme and the right will be a valentine's theme, with all my I love you bears and red bears. In the middle, I will put bears to blend the themes in by using some transition bears.

Spring:

Pastels and green shout spring. A spring display needs lots of pink, lavender, silver, pastel blue and other shades well blended, using bears of that color. Green bears can set a background for the display, or a green spring landscape scene would be the perfect setting for all the pastels to bloom in. No greys or whites here!

Summer:

Summer is for bright colors and daring patterns. I shall put up my yellow, orange, deep blue and other summery colors in this display, all set in a background of sunflower pictures. Multicolored bears can also be a part of a summer display. Light and airy summer or outdoor costumed bears in any color fur can also join in the fun, and will help to set the mood. While it is always fun to mix and match bears of different bold colors, it would be important to create a balanced look by blending the colors well with transition bears. I am even thinking a rainbow theme - bears from violet through red, all arranged from left to right.

Autumn:

A fall display can look great in harvest colors of red, orange, gold etc. One or two purple bears can also add to the fun of the setting and prevent it from looking too orange-y. I would want to throw in a background setting with fall pictures to set the mood.

Some of the bears can fit more than one season. Every bear in the collection gets to come out in at least one season - so none is left forever in storage. Plus, this setting gives me my shopping list, too - "now, if I can find a lavender bear for the spring season, it would be great!" So my bear collection would be more enjoyable and more visually appealing too.

You can try this yourself. Find out themes you love, and put up a display exclusively for that theme. You will have a lot of fun, and perhaps even add more bears to your hug after an exciting hunt for the perfect pieces of your theme. And you never know, you may even end up centering your entire collection around that particular theme!

Finding direction in your collection

Heya,

Let's face it - bears aren't exactly something you can store away in desk drawers, they take up space. And as with any collector, a bear collector also tends to collect first and think later about storage and display. Plus, in these economic times, it is not easy for non-multimillionaire collectors to buy everything they love.

So, what do we do? How do we make sure that our collection doesn't end up wasting money or space? The answer is direction.

The reason why many teddy bear collectors seem to end up with rooms overflowing with bears and hardly any time or space to enjoy them, is because they went around collecting every bear that caught their eye. In the initial stages where teddy bears of any and every type attract us, it is hard not to fall into this problem. I admit I had it too.

But sooner or later, we realize that if we keep doing things that way, we would soon end up homeless, or would have to part with a majority of the collection in order to make room for new comers. Or it may cause friction with your loved ones who once tried to be supportive of your bear-mania by gifting you special teddies.

So, a time comes when we just have to find a direction to our collection. A time when we decide, okay, from now on I am going to focus on this manufacturer / material / character / color / country, and only buy teddies of that area. This would significantly reduce impulse buys, and you would have a collection which looks more professional and appealing. Plus, it might even end up being more valuable than a generic and unfocused collection.

Now, finding this direction would give us specific collecting goals. What is the next thing I am looking for? And the thrill of the hunt begins. It is much more fun to actively seek and find a special bear than to randomly pick up a cute bear at the local mall.

Since you can pick your direction depending on your taste, budget and space availability, chances are it wouldn't end up causing you too much trouble. And you might even be able to enjoy the collection more.

Once you feel you have collected enough from a certain niche, you can always move on to a new niche, so it is not like you are tied up for life. Also, even while you are focusing exclusively on one segment, if a unique and special bear comes your way for a great price, you needn't hesitate to bring her home either ;)

Now, after eight years of collecting, is my own collection starting to find a direction now? Yes, finally! I am now focusing on colors, and adding uniquely colored ones to my collection. So, if you have an amethyst or gold colored bear to spare, feel free to send them my way ;)

Cheers!

A collector's coming of age!

As with any collection, we often find that a collector "comes-of-age" when the focus of the collection shifts from quantity to quality.

Now, in the case of teddy bears especially, quality does not really translate to highly priced collectibles alone. It means owning bears that have a special quality in your eyes. It means selecting bears because they are just ones you cannot live without. It also means choosing bears not just because they are ones you can afford or are the ones that others seem to appreciate.

A true quality teddy bear collection has only those bears which bring joy to the collector. Each bear would be special in the eyes of the collector.

Unlike several other hobbies, a teddy bear collection is one that should be purely accumulated for the joy of it. Investment shouldn't really be a concern. Although, if the bears that bring you joy are top-notch collectible ones, go ahead by all means! But remember that the true quality of a bear is in how much you enjoy him/her.

And, if at some point you feel like you should pass on a bear in a collection to someone who would enjoy it more than you would, don't feel guilty about it! After all, every bear deserves to be loved, and it is only fair that they should end up with people who truly love them.

Cheers!

Candy Month!

Hello!

June is Candy Month! Here are some ways to celebrate it with your bears!

1. Give candy to your bears! Make sure you don't give them too many though, since they may develop a tooth ache!

2. Name a bear "Candy"! Perhaps one that reminds you of a candy?

3. Save up candy money and buy a bear!

4. Take the bears out on picnic and bring lots of candy! June 21st, the first day of summer, may just be the perfect day for that! This year, it falls on a sunday too!

5. Have a candy themed party for the bears!

6. Gift a bear and a candy to a child and spread the joy!

7. Post a blog about your beary special candy month!

8. Take pictures of your bears with lots of candy!

9. Get together with fellow bear collectors and arrange a candy themed teddy bear picnic!

10. Write in your own creative candy month bear experiences as comments!

Cheers!

Organize your bear collection

Hello!

Are you addicted to bears? Do you have so many bears in your collection that you don't know what to do with them? Here are some tips to organize your bear collection.

1. Create a bear catalogue.
This will come really handy not just to identify your bears even after the tags wear out, but also in valuing them later on. You can create a simple catalogue in a notepad or in your computer as an excel sheet. The name of the bear, manufacturer/artist, purchase date, purchase place, bill number, price and any other comment can be included in your catalogue. Don't worry if you don't have the details of any of your bears so far, you can always just write down the names of the bears you own, and fill in the details for the bears you buy from now on. It would be a good idea to save the bill too, by affixing it to your bear's page in the catalogue.

2. Decide on an organizing theme.
You can organize your bears in so many different ways. It would be a good idea to decide how you are going to classify your bears. You can do it by color, by manufacturer, by age (antique, vintage, modern), by artist, by size etc. Once you have decided on a theme of your choice, you can go about classifying each bear to its group. If you have a bear catalogue in place, you can include the classification also in it.

3. Decide which bears to store away.
Often, our collections get too huge and our space too small. In such cases, we may have to store some of our precious friends away in an attic or basement temporarily. Remember to store them in moisture free places, after wrapping each one in a white cloth, and away from direct sunlight and pests. If you have decided on a theme, you can decide to display one particular group only for now, and store all the rest away.

4. Display your bears.
You would be left with some choice bears which you are going to display. You can arrange these bears around your house, or collect them all in one show case. Remember to clean each chosen bear before display. Make sure you display them out of reach of pets and pests. Remember that every once in a while, the bears would love it if you would take them down from display positions and play with them!

5. Rotate your display.
The fun part about your displaying your collection is in rotating. You can rotate your bear display every month, every season (summer, autumn etc), every year or just whenever you feel like it. Rotating your display helps to liven up your living space and give it a touch of freshness. Also, it will make sure that no bear gets stored away for too long, because they do love attention and company! If you have classified your bears into groups, you can rotate each group in a period of time. For example, you may have divided your bears according to color. Perhaps you can display all your white bears in January, red bears in February, yellow ones in March and so on! Have fun with your display, enjoy your collection.

Hope these tips are helpful in organizing your collection and enjoying it more!

Cheers!

Teddy Bear Names

Hello!

I have so many bear names that I love, which are yet to be used. Hopefully I will use them on some bears I own in the future! 

The names I have in mind include: Honey, Pebble, Caramel, Cashew, Tiffany, Bell, Bubbles, Buttercup etc. 

I haven't named my duty free bears yet - I may name them Caramel and Honey. Caramel for the boy, of course. They do have light honey colored fur, so it will suit them. Yup, decided then. Caramel for the boy bear and Honey for the girl bear. Great! That means I have crossed off two more names from my list.

Pebble is a great name, I must adopt a bear who suits that name some day...

Cheers!

Teddy Bear Care - Cleaning a bear

Hello!

Today let us go through the ways to clean our bears, especially old and dusty ones. The bears in my hug are very tickled by the cleaning process, but they love the sparkling feel once it is done! 

1. If the bear has the manufacturer's tag, please follow the instructions in it for cleaning. It is the safest way.

2. You can take a white washcloth (it shouldn't be colored, please), wet it, wring it out and wipe the whole body of the bear softly. A lot of surface dirt comes of this way. Repeat if needed. Allow the bear to dry indoors overnight, please do not sun-dry or use blow driers.

3. Brush the bear fur with a soft and wide brush. 

4. Play with the bear often and move him/her around every once in a while, to avoid dust. 

5. I wouldn't recommend throwing even the sturdiest bear in a washing machine, even in gentle cycle. But if the bear is so dirty that you can't help it, then put the bear inside a wire mesh bag and do it. 

6. You can use the upholstery attachment of a vacuum cleaner or a handheld vacuum cleaner to vacuum the bear. 

Hope these tips help you!

Cheers!